In the general, silver halide photographic materials may form images by a development process comprising the steps of development, fixation and rinsing-in-water (stabilization).
Hitherto, the development step in the procedure comprising development, fixation and rinsing-in-water could be performed for a shortened period of time of, for example, from 15 seconds to 18 seconds only for development for small image area units such as microphotographs. Also, a rapid processing, for example, for 20 seconds was possible only for printing light-sensitive materials comprising silver chlorobromide.
In these days, rapidity is being required in every technical field with progress and development of electronic technology, not excepting the photographic field. In particular, in a roller conveyor type automatic developing machine to be used for processing of sheet-like light-sensitive materials such as, for example, graphic art light-sensitive materials, X-ray light-sensitive materials, scanner light-sensitive materials, CRT image recording light-sensitive materials, etc., the tank capacity necessary for development of a unit of the light-sensitive material for a unit period of time may be smaller with the promotion of the rapid development, or that is, the automatic developing machine to be used for the development may advantageously be small, and therefore, the rapid development is desired.
On the other hand, in the development of hard contrast photographic materials such as graphic art light-sensitive materials, a so-called "Bromide dragging" or "drag streaks" has heretofore been known, which means a phenomenon wherein the development of the part which is adjacent to the strongly developed part is retarded so that the density thus actually attained in the former part would be lower than the density which is to be naturally obtained. This is one of the significant problems in the photographic image formation method which is intended to obtain accurate images and accurate informations, since this is against the intent of the method. The said development retardation (inhibition) is considered to be caused by H+ and Br- generated in the developed part, and it is believed that the former would result in development deactivation because of a local pH drop and the latter would directly cause development inhibition. The problem is more severe in the rapid development process where the time development step is shortened. This is because the amounts of H+ and Br- generated in a unit time are large in the rapid development procedure. This problem has heretofore been despaired of with no idea for overcoming the same, since it has been considered that the problem is unavoidable so far as silver halide photographic materials to be developed with a developer containing a hydroquinone series developing agent are concerned.
Under the circumstances, the present inventors investigated a technique of finishing the development of silver halide photographic materials with an automatic developing machine within 15 seconds or less, which has heretofore been unknown in this technical field, so as to increase the rapidity of the development. However, during the trial of the rapid development with an automatic developing machine within 15 seconds or less, the inventors met with an unknown phenomenon of development unevenness. Such development unevenness is thought to be caused by the fact that, in the rapid development step, the speed of conveying the photographic material being processed in the automatic development machine is rapid in addition to the increased amounts of H+ and Br- as mentioned above so that the development-inhibiting effect would be strengthened in the latter step of the development of the photographic material. Thus, good photographic images would not be able to be obtained with the present-day technique without overcoming the problem of unevenness (bromide dragging or drag streaks)